Baseball America College Baseball Poll-March 22

DURHAM, N.C.—Virginia swept ACC foe Boston College over the weekend to finish a perfect week and remain at No. 1 in the Baseball America Top 25 rankings for the fifth straight week.

While Virginia continued its dominance, the real story of the week came from a pair of Pac-10 squads that have been perfect over the season’s first month. Arizona State has started the season 20-0 and last week swept a two-game midweek series at Cal State Fullerton then swept Houston over the weekend to move up to the third spot in the rankings. Meanwhile, UCLA is 16-0 and swept Oral Roberts last weekend, earning the Bruins a place in the top 10 at No. 9.

Florida was another big mover at the top of the rankings. The Gators won a midweek game against rival Florida State, then swept Mississippi State in the opening weekend of Southeastern Conference play, allowing them to jump to No. 2. Mississippi was another SEC school to move up after a big opening weekend in conference play, as the Rebels went on the road to then-No. 22 Kentucky and took two out of three, helping them reach No. 18 and knocking the Wildcats out of the rankings.

Three teams joined the rankings for the first time in 2010. Alabama opened conference play with a series win against Vanderbilt to enter the rankings at No. 20. Western Kentucky also faced the Commodores last week, splitting a midweek series, before sweeping Virginia Commonwealth over the weekend, earning itself the No. 22 ranking. And finally, Texas A&M won its opening series of Big 12 play against Texas Tech, joining the rankings at No. 23.

The staff of Baseball America determines the Top 25 rankings. Records indicated are through games of March 21 and do not include ties.